memory_alphafandomcom-20200223-history
DVD
DVD (short for Digital Versatile (or Video) Disc) is a digital standard-definition (SD) optical disc home media entertainment format. Developed in the early 1990s by and , the digital format gives higher resolution picture and sound than the Betamax or VHS magnetic video tape, and allows for special features to be added alongside the main feature. These advantages over VHS ultimately led to the decline of that format, as indeed it did for the contemporary optical disc format contenders VCD and LaserDisc for similar reasons. Despite the fact that a consumer needed to operate a new playback devise to access a DVD, the format became a breakout success from the time it was introduced. This was, aside from the intrinsic picture and sound quality, also due to the physical qualities of the new format. Ease of handling and accessibility of a movie or television production on the disc was greatly enhanced over the more cumbersome magnetic video tape, whereas the physical size of the medium was only a fraction of that of a video tape with both disc storage capacity and longevity being far superior to that of a video tape, which was susceptible to mechanical wear and tear, causing picture and sound quality to degrade over time contrary to the constant quality of a DVD (provided a disc was properly stored). For collectors, such as those of Star Trek, size and greater disc storage capacity meant that great physical space savings could be realized in their homes; where a full season of of a Star Trek series comprised of around thirteen two episode video tapes, the series on DVD would only take up six or seven of the much smaller four episode discs. Adoption of the new format was accelerated as it also used the same dissemination method that had made its magnetic tape predecessor so successful, the video rental circuit. Most rental companies also carried basic players, customers, not yet owning one of their own, could borrow to watch their rented products, strongly aiding the acceptance of the format. However, it also made the rental circuit increasingly redundant, when prices of both discs and players started to drop to the point where the video rental circuit all but disappeared. The video tape format did not disappear overnight though, as it continued to exist a while longer as television recording devise, a feature not carried by the DVD format, until digital alternatives became available in the 2000s. However, as a prerecorded home media entertainment consumable, the era of the magnetic video tape format was over, the moment the DVD became widely available. In this, the DVD format has also greatly benefited from the rise of the online retailer in the same era, of which Amazon.com was one of the more conspicuous ones. A commercial success story for the better part of two decades in which it became a near universal standard, the DVD went into decline itself with the advent of the even more superior Blu-ray Disc format in 2006 – though its acceptance was hindered by the universal success of its predecessor, acknowledged as such by Hollywood studios, who as of 2019 still concurrently release their productions in both formats, and Blu-ray player manufacturers whose products are virtually all capable to play DVD discs as well. However, both also started to suffer more substantially from the more recent, early 2010s, advent of the increasingly popular digital video-on-demand streaming services as provided by such companies as, most conspicuously, Netflix. Regions DVD releases are divided into separate regions, to restrict the areas specific discs can be played. The following is a guide to the regions and which areas of the world they relate to: While customers and collectors frowned upon the geo-restriction format, there had been valid business reasons involved for its usage; at the time of the introduction of the DVD, the near simultaneously worldwide roll-out of a new Hollywood production as currently employed, was not yet in place, meaning a production (and therefore its resultant home media format) premiered in different places at different times. Japan and other eastern Asian countries, for example could habitually lag for almost up to a year behind the USA where theatrical features were concerned. The geo-restriction was intended as a protection measure for not only theater owners and broadcasters who still had to show these productions in the lagging territories, but also for local branches of home media distributors, such as CIC Video, justifying their existence. In the latter case, these local branches enjoyed a certain measure of autonomy in regard to regional marketing strategies, often resulting in regional differences in DVD releases, especially where the in-, or exclusion of special features was concerned, not rarely to the frustration of collectors located in other regions, those of Star Trek included. DVD player manufacturers were enforced by Hollywood studios to build these restrictions into their marketed players as well – either by software or hardware – , so that for example a Region 2 player was only able to play a Region 2 disc, that is in theory at least as less scrupulous dealers were able to quite easily circumvent (whether or not surreptitiously aided by the manufacturers themselves as software patches in particular were regularly leaked on the internet) the restricting player measures for their customers. Geo-restriction became a major contributing factor to the pervasive problem of piracy, especially in eastern Asia (and one of the reasons why the non-restricted VCD format held out for so long in these regions, long after it went defunct elsewhere in the world, as it also became the medium of choice for pirated copies) which in turn, alongside the proliferating (illegal) digital dissemination possibilities through the internet, has forced Hollywood to eventually adopt the near simultaneous worldwide roll-out format for their releases. This in turn has led to the increasing redundancy of geo-restricting the home media releases, as is evidenced for the Blu-ray successor. While still employed – with keeping local distributors alive as the only remaining rationale – , more and more regular releases are in effect becoming region-free (regardless of what the packaging might state as was the case with the recent Star Trek: The Compendium Blu-ray release) with contents standardized for the entire world. This however, is not the case for the DVD where the geo-restriction format is still upheld in full force, conceivably as additional means for production companies to entice consumers further to make the switch from DVD to Blu-ray. History of Star Trek on DVD Star Trek DVDs first emerged in in Region 1, when Paramount Home Video began releasing basic, "vanilla" releases of the first nine – usually containing the film and its associated trailers only. The films were released in a mostly reverse chronological order, starting with . saw release during this time (slotting in between and ), and was released in , with some very limited special features, mostly comprised of franchise promotional material, such as televised production shorts and advertisements. As it turned out however, more in-depth special features had been produced for these films, but were only offered on separate discs through by the franchise selected preferred retailers , most notably the chain store Best Buy, a market discrimination strategy called the "retailer exclusive format", and one that is particularly loathed by fans and customers – particularly by those who had only access to the "vanilla" releases. At the time several scrupulous Best Buy patrons bought these releases in bulk and subsequently offered the special feature discs up at premium prices on eBay, the market site that was at the time rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with. http://treknostalgia.blogspot.nl/2009/03/star-trek-home-video-saga_06.html The following year, a release of began, in a two-episode-per-disc format. These releases had limited bonus features, and were presented in a cardboard sleeve. The episodes were released in production order, with (in both black & white and colorized versions) being included on the final volume. These releases were Region 1 only; the rest of the world would have to wait until for an Original Series release. In , Paramount released on DVD. For this release, the company decided to reappraise the film as a whole, introducing new CG special effects, and re-cutting the film to better reflect Robert Wise's original intentions. This "Director's Edition" was a two-disc release with extensive special features. (As a result, the theatrical cut of the film was not released on DVD until the Region 2 Original Motion Picture Collection.) Following the enormous success of the Director's Edition of , Paramount re-released the other nine films in two-disc special editions, with some new features along with the ones that were previously only available to the Best Buy clientèle, redressing the perceived injustice as far as the fanbase was concerned. The next phase of Star Trek DVD releases saw the focus shift from individual volumes to season box sets. These box sets contained a number of special features, including documentaries, galleries and 'easter eggs'. Each series would be released separately, with one series release finishing before the next would begin. The first series to receive the box set treatment was , which began its release in . '' Deep Space Nine'' followed in , with '' Voyager'' being released in . A re-release of The Original Series in season box sets was intertwined with the Voyager release. Complete collections of all seasons were also released. In Region 2, two special box sets were released in : the Jean-Luc Picard Collection, and Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Complete TV Movies were unusual, in that they collected 'themed' episodes together. The sales of these led to Paramount announcing in that it was considering releasing DVD boxed sets containing episodes from any of the live-action Star Trek series, and polling fans via StarTrek.com as to the episodes to be released. The result of this was the Star Trek: Fan Collective box sets. :The ''TV Movies release is also unusual in that it has yet to be released in Region 1.'' The series release of in saw commentaries, bloopers and deleted scenes included as special features on a series release for the first time. The final series to be released was ''The Animated Series'', which received a release in late . Following the success of the season box sets in Region 2, Paramount Home Entertainment chose to re-release the sets in new, "slimline" packaging at a much lower price – Next Generation in , Deep Space Nine and Voyager in , and Enterprise in . In some territories such as Germany these were at first released as half-season sets though in Germany full-season sets were later made available in . In , to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Next Generation, a special complete series box set was released, containing the original discs released, plus a special retrospective bonus disc. A popular feature in the early decades of the DVD had been the inclusion of so-called "Easter eggs", hidden special features, not accessible through the main DVD menu. Instead, these features had to be found by either entering a "secret" code on the remote control, or by searching for an Easter egg indication on the menu graphic when a section would light up. Typically these features were under five minutes shorts, usually comprised of cast and/or crew interview snippets, delving into subject matters not covered in the standard features. As far as Star Trek was concerned, the best known of these were the "Red Shirt Logs" on the Original Series season DVD releases, and the "Section 31 Files" on the Deep Space Nine season DVD releases. Some of the [[Star Trek films (DVD)#Special Editions|Special Edition Star Trek movie DVD]] releases also contained Easter eggs, which were particularly hard to find. Something of a fad at the time, the gimmick is losing its appeal in the Blu-ray Disc age, and in many cases the easily overlooked Easter eggs were not ported over to the Blu-ray counterpart re-releases, as had been the case with most of these from the Star Trek movies. The ''Original Series'' Remastered project saw the first release using next-generation optical media. The first season release was designed as a DVD/HD DVD combination, allowing it to be viewed on players of both formats. However, the collapse of the HD DVD industry meant that the remaining two seasons were released in DVD-only format throughout . Outside of episode releases, DVDs are also used as components for board games. The game/toy companies Screenlife and Mattel co-released Star Trek Scene It?, an all-Trek edition of the trivia game series. DVD release chronology :See DVD release chronology. Appendices See also *[[The Ultimate Star Trek Collection|The Ultimate Star Trek Collection]] External links * * de:DVD fr:DVD nl:DVD sv:DVD/VHS 00